This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Sylvia Ardyn Boone, a scholar of Art History with a focus on African art, and the first African-American woman to receive tenure at Yale University. The collection includes manuscripts, correspondence, course materials and syllabi, research notes, printed materials, photographs, video and sound recordings, and other papers relating to professional projects. Also included are dissertation manuscripts for recipients of the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Memorial Prize at Yale.

This collection documents the life and career of African-American social worker and educator William Neal Brown. Personal material includes his military records, family photos, material from his undergraduate years at the Hampton Institute, and various tributes from later in his life. The professional material is primarily typescripts of speeches and papers that Brown presented in the late 1960s and early 1970s to various academic and community groups. The audiovisual material includes audio of his debate with Malcolm X, titled "Integration or Separation," that took place on Ovember 3, 1961, at Rutgers University.